I stopped reading when I got here

Right mate, the international game is dying on its ass is it? Have you seen the crowds that Canada are attracting and the media reception hey are getting? Jamaica are thriving domestically and so are nations like Serbia.



Vanuatu play their first international this autumn and their squad boasts some decent names. The cook islands are flourishing domestically and internationally whilst Wales are improving on and off the field year on year.



The international game has its struggles admittedly, such as the eligibility laws and certain nations being left down with funding and the inability to play even one international a year.



And those teams? I NEVER ever want to see Garreth Carvell or Keith Mason in welsh jersey ever again, they sicken me for their attempts to cheapen the red jersey as an alternative!



Although maybe eligible Sam Williams, Gavin Cooper, David Stagg etc have never come out publically to say they want to play for Wales and until they do I don't want ring ins for the occasional 4nations or world cup.

Regular international games for the 2nd tier nations agains the top tier nations is the only way to improve the international game.



Yes, some will have a fair few players born in England playing for them but that isnt the problem, Carvell playing for and sticking with wales would be fine, him changing then to England was the issue.



When players who play for Wales can play as often against NZ and Aus as players who play for England, the choping and changing will stop.

given you've seemingly never managed to post something relevant in your life, I doubt you've ever started. One day, maybe one day, you will.

Daryl Clark is a very good player but sticking him at FB isn't the best of ideas either!

Yeah, great, a bunch of small nations with a handful of professionals between them play in front of fewer people than Fev get for a home game, and international RL is on the up. Yeah, right.



Regular games against ANZAC need to be the preserve of a joint side so there's no conflict in playing for Wales/Scotland and playing top-level RL. Similarly, by allowing players to play for Wales, Scotland & Ireland you make internationals between the home nations competitive, so people might actually care about them. The Ireland side above would give England a run for their money.



The situation is reflected down under, where SOO needs to be opened to non-Australians, so that the likes of Uate, Tuqiri & Hayne can play for their respective countries of origin, rather than hold out for a Kangaroos & QLD/NSW jersey.



An RLWC (and the RLIF needs to get some money together to start legal proceedings against the IRB to get them to make themselves the IRUB and their event the RUWC) that had competitve Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales & France teams would be an international product that we could sell. So would Lions tours and a regular European Championship. That not only gets prestige and money into the game, it gets people. Paddy from Dublin probably doesn't know or care about Wigan, Leeds & Catalans, but if he sees an Ireland side performing well, he might well start to. And if one particular side (for Ireland, Wigan & Warrington) contain lots of Irish/Welsh/Scottish players, he might start to care for them too.

I would love to see a 5 nations competition between England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France. Ok England will dominate for a few years but once players commit to a nation and the competitions profile increases, more and more players will become more competitive to fight for a GB jersey to play test series against the aussies and kiwis. I like the idea but it will never happen unfortunately because RL fans don't give a toss about the international game.

Firstly,



Canada's Latest Home Attendances: 4,630 (vs Jamaica) 2,300 (vs Lebanon), 4,675 (vs USA)

Featherstones?: 2,816 (vs Keighley), 2,068 (vs Swinton)



And to think every single Canadian player was amatuer that's some effort against a team that has decades upon decades of tradition in a heartland Rugby League area (no disrespect aimed at Fev here). But if according to you the international game is dead then so is the championship and a few members of Super League.



Secondly,



Allowing a bunch of players from the north of England and east coast of Australia with certain heritages to represent your country doesn't necessarily attract crowds, although these players may be proud as punch to rep their heritage. Pal, let me speak from experience of following Wales, watching a team with Lloyd White, Gil Dudson, Ben Flower who are all young Welsh born lads means more to the watching public than the pathetic team we mustered with no proper Welsh lads together in 2007 that failed WC qualification... that team? Hit no passion and touched no heartstrings with me, just like most of the players would never represent my country again. Why? Wales to them was a quick trip to Australia for a world cup.



Thirdly,



By opening Origin up to every man and his dog with plenty of nationalities represented infuriates Australians who are represented by Queenslanders and NSWelshman, imagine the example of Sam Kasiano was followed on for anotehr decade.. it'd be a joke with 'Queensland' and 'NSW' just being names to which mean nothing to half the players.



Lastly that WC bit,



To an extent i agree. Having 6/7 strong nations in a WC is vital. However doing it via heritage players and ring-ins doesn't work. The international game needs time! Tonga and Samoa cant rely on heritage players forever they have to pull their finger out and start producing local kids and slowly feeding them into strong domestic comps as Tongan players that will represent Tonga as the nation that gave them their start in the sport. This will take time but believe me will have a HUGE benefit on the international game in years to come... I'll predict that in 15 years Serbia will be one of the strongest nations in Europe outside of the UK.. the groundwork and player development pathway they have is constant and flourishing year on year it's not the overnight success story that naming Chris Bridge and Ben Harrison is in naming your Ireland team for a quick fix that has no prolonged impact.



The same with Canada, groundwork and marketing has put the game in the publics mind there. The interest will boom and the demand for the sport will grow, so with it the demand for on-field success. What will bring this success? A strong domestic competition and youth development system that will be properly supervised to a high level. How to manage this cost? Heck look at their attendances. Their attendances = Ticket revenue and potential sponsorship e.g. the ones they have already tied up in Universal Music (Canada) and Coors Light.

To be fair to Tykes/Rhinos I think there's some decent ideas in there, especially the 5 Nations comp which I think could be a goer if it were to be mid-season, it'll never work post-season.



That's some really promising crowds for Canada as well, what's the domestic game like in Canada?

Canada have two comps, one based around Toronto and he other in British Columbia, with 4 and 5 teams respectively I think. Originally they struggled to fulfil completing every game however the attendances of the internationals speaks volumes in the importance of exposing the Canadian public to our wonderful game... They're almost building from the top down in order to expand from the bottom with some exposure and money to the top again even stronger.

That's great, there may be an opening in Canada as they seem to like their contact sports.

SOO is going to pretty much kill the Int game in the Southern Hemisphere so I would concentrate on trying to get 3-4 competitive teams out of Europe. Will be interested to see the appetite for Int RL the new ARL commision has, if any. At the least I would love to see us pursue a World nines every pre season and bring back Ashes 3 match test series. We can live in hope!